London, June 8 (IANS) Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho on Monday restated his belief that he was a victim of corruption when he finished second to Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque for the World Coach of the Year award in 2012.
Mourinho had earlier echoed the same sentiments in 2013.
Sepp Blatter resigned last week as FIFA president amidst chaos as a host of top officials of the world football’s governing body were arrested for money laundering and corruption.
“In 2012, I was one of the three finalists and when I was told I was finishing second with a few votes behind the first, it looked normal to me. But then the votes were made public,” Mourinho was quoted as saying by the telegraph.co.uk on Monday.
“And a former player, a national team captain, called me: ‘Mister, there is something wrong. Because obviously, obviously, I gave you the vote, then in the list they put another coach’s name and that was not me,” said Mourinho.
“A few minutes later my Portuguese friend, a national team coach, called me: ‘Mister, don’t believe what you see in the list because obviously I vote for you.’ And a few minutes later I got a message from another national coach, ‘they changed my vote’. Who changed the vote? His federation? FIFA? Who?”
“It is not a drama. A drama is other things but at that time I said, ‘from this moment I don’t go back,’ because obviously something happened,” he said.
The 52-year-old Portuguese also criticised managers who focused on a possession-dominated game and neglected defence and counter-attack.
“If you don’t play counter-attack then it’s because you are stupid. Football will never change. Football is to win,” he said.
Indo-Asian News Service
dd/sam/bg